Word recognition system and method for customer and employee assessment

ABSTRACT

One-to-many comparisons of callers&#39; words and/or voice prints with known words and/or voice prints to identify any substantial matches between them. When a customer communicates with a particular entity, such as a customer service center, the system makes a recording of the real-time call including both the customer&#39;s and agent&#39;s voices. The system segments the recording to extract different words, such as words of anger. The system may also segment at least a portion of the customer&#39;s voice to create a tone profile, and it formats the segmented words and tone profiles for network transmission to a server. The server compares the customer&#39;s words and/or tone profiles with multiple known words and/or tone profiles stored on a database to determine any substantial matches. The identification of any matches may be used for a variety of purposes, such as providing representative feedback or customer follow-up.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to a method for identifying thetone of a caller's voice in order to determine a change in attitude inan effort to improve the quality of customer service.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

With the influx of consumer call centers, many companies desire ways togauge customer satisfaction with phone calls. Many call centers havesome type of quality monitoring is in place which is used to ensurecompliance adherence and to evaluate representative performance.However, limitations exist as a minimal number of customer calls aremonitored, and the process is not used to gauge customersatisfaction/experience.

For example, conventional methods of call monitoring require manuallistening/observing of the call to appropriate assess representativecall handling as well as customer acceptance/dissatisfaction. Other callmonitoring techniques focus primarily on tone profiles associated with acall and do not adequately assess the words or other callcharacteristics.

There is also a need for verification and evaluation ofcustomer/satisfaction assessment systems. That is, there is a need toactively poll customers about their satisfaction with various phonecalls, and there is a further need to use this poll information tobetter assess future customer calls.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

A method and system for call monitoring to assess customer acceptanceand dissatisfaction is provided. The invention facilitates extractingdifferent customer and employee behaviors that correspond to the variouswords used during recorded customer servicing calls. The inventionincludes a system for recording, extracting, comparing and storingcertain words and related behaviors. For example, in one embodiment, aword database is created based on known words that reveal a specificbehavior. In another embodiment, a method for comparing words fromrecorded calls to the words stored in the database is provided. Forexample, in one embodiment, recordings are used to assess representativecall handling, gauge customer satisfaction and experience for trainingpurposes, along with facilitating employee feedback, training anddevelopment. The system and method may be configured to work inreal-time, periodic intervals and/or at a delayed time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals representlike elements, are incorporated in and constitute a part of thisspecification and, together with the description, explain the advantagesand principles of the invention. In the drawings,

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary word and tone recognitionsystem in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an exemplary method for word recognition inaccordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the inventionherein makes reference to the accompanying block diagrams andflowcharts, which show the exemplary embodiment by way of illustrationand its best mode. While these exemplary embodiments are described insufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice theinvention, it should be understood that other embodiments may berealized and that logical and mechanical changes may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the detaileddescription herein is presented for purposes of illustration only andnot of limitation. For example, the steps recited in any of the methodor process descriptions may be executed in any order and are not limitedto the order presented.

Moreover, it should be appreciated that the particular implementationsshown and described herein are illustrative of the invention and itsbest mode and are not intended to otherwise limit the scope of thepresent invention in any way. Indeed, for the sake of brevity, certainsub-components of the individual operating components, conventional datanetworking, application development and other functional aspects of thesystem may not be described in detail herein. Furthermore, theconnecting lines shown in the various figures contained herein areintended to represent exemplary functional relationships and/or physicalcouplings between the various elements. It should be noted that manyalternative or additional functional relationships or physicalconnections may be present in a practical system.

The present invention may be described herein in terms of blockdiagrams, screen shots and flowcharts, optional selections and variousprocessing steps. Such functional blocks may be realized by any numberof hardware and/or software components configured to perform tospecified functions. For example, the present invention may employvarious integrated circuit components (e.g., memory elements, processingelements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like), which may carryout a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, the softwareelements of the present invention may be implemented with anyprogramming or scripting language such as C, C++, Java, COBOL,assembler, PERL, extensible markup language (XML), smart cardtechnologies with the various algorithms being implemented with anycombination of data structures, objects, processes, routines or otherprogramming elements. Further, it should be noted that the presentinvention may employ any number of conventional techniques for datatransmission, signaling, data processing, network control, and the like.

In addition, many applications of the present invention could beformulated. The exemplary network disclosed herein may include anysystem for accessing, storing, exchanging and/or otherwise manipulatinguser information, such as a distributed system, a thin cable network, anEthernet, a token ring network, the Internet, an intranet, an extranet,wide area network (WAN), local area network (LAN), satellitecommunications, and/or the like. It is noted that the network may beimplemented as other types of networks, such as an interactivetelevision network (ITN).

The system user may interact with the system via any input device suchas, a keypad, keyboard, mouse, kiosk, personal digital assistant,handheld computer (e.g., Palm Pilot®, Blueberry®), cellular telephoneand/or the like. For example, any input device may also be a “pervasivecomputing device,” such as a traditionally non-computerized device thatis embedded with a computing unit, such as, for example, watches,Internet-enabled kitchen appliances, restaurant tables embedded with RFreaders, wallets or purses with imbedded transponders, etc. Similarly,the invention could be used in conjunction with any type of personalcomputer, network computer, work station, minicomputer, mainframe, orthe like running any operating system such as any version of Windows,Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows 95, MacOS,OS/2, BeOS, Linux, UNIX, Solaris, MVS or the like. Moreover, althoughthe invention may frequently be described as being implemented withTCP/IP communications protocol, it should be understood that theinvention could also be implemented using SNA, IPX, Appletalk, IPte,NetBIOS, OSI or any number of communications protocols. Moreover, thesystem contemplates the use, sale, or distribution of any goods,services or information over any network having similar functionalitydescribed herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a tone/word recognitionsystem 100 in accordance with the present invention. System 100 mayinclude call recording component 110 configured with extractioncomponent 115. System 100 may also include comparing component 120configured for facilitating comparisons between extracted words and/ortones and words and/or tone profiles stored on database 112. System 100may also comprise accept/reject component 125 configured for accepting,rejecting and/or analyzing matches between the extracted and saved wordsand/or tones. Although specific embodiments are discussed herein, oneskilled in the art will appreciate that any of the components of thesystem may include only software, only hardware or a combination.

As used herein, the term “word” may refer to individual words, groups ofwords, phrases, sentences, tone, exclamations and/or other sounds ornoises. A tone profile may refer to the sound profile that accompanies agiven word. The tone profile may be stored as, for example, a number, afrequency-domain profile, a Gaussian distribution profile, a logarithmicdistribution and/or any other way of quantifying and/or characterizingthe tone accompanying a word.

While the system will be described herein with respect to telephonecommunications, one skilled in the art will appreciate that anycommunication device now known or hereinafter developed may also be usedin the present invention. The system may include a host server or othercomputing systems including a processor for processing digital data(i.e., a digital signal processor), a memory coupled to said processorfor storing digital data, an input digitizer coupled to the processorfor inputting digital data, an application program stored in said memoryand accessible by said processor for directing processing of digitaldata by said processor, a display coupled to the processor and memoryfor displaying information derived from digital data processed by saidprocessor and a plurality of databases, said databases including clientdata, merchant data, financial institution data and/or like data thatcould be used in association with the present invention. As thoseskilled in the art will appreciate, user computer will typically includean operating system (e.g., Windows NT, 95/98/2000/XP, Linux, Solaris,etc.) as well as various conventional support software and driverstypically associated with computers. Customer computer may be in a homeor business environment with access to a network. In an exemplaryembodiment, access is through the Internet through acommercially-available web-browser software package.

Communication between the parties to the transaction and the system ofthe present invention may be accomplished through any suitablecommunication means, such as, for example, a telephone network,intranet, Internet, point-of-interaction device (point-of-sale device,personal digital assistant, cellular telephone, kiosk, etc.), onlinecommunications, off-line communications, wireless communications,transponder communications and/or the like. One skilled in the art willalso appreciate that, for security reasons, any databases, systems, orcomponents of the present invention may consist of any combination ofdatabases or components at a single location or at multiple locations,wherein each database or system includes any of various suitablesecurity features, such as firewalls, access codes, encryption,decryption, compression, decompression, and/or the like.

Recording component 110 may comprise any recording hardware and/orsoftware configured for recording a call, conversation, sound and/orother communication. Recording component 110 may be configured for usein conjunction with an agent telephone. Recording component 110 may beconfigured to record by any means known in the art, such as, forexample, by digitizing the communication, analog means, tape recoding,storing in digital format, storing on a hard drive, disk, RAM, opticaldisk, and/or by any other recording method or system. For example, inone embodiment, recording component 110 is configured to record in amanner similar to that described in the method described in U.S.application Ser. No. 10/448,552 entitled “SPEAKER RECOGNITION IN AMULTI-SPEAKER ENVIRONMENT AND COMPARISON OF SEVERAL VOICE PRINTS TOMANY,” filed on May 30, 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference.

Extraction component 115 may comprise any software and/or hardwareconfigured to extract various words and/or tones from a recordedconversation and store those words and/or tones in database 112.Extraction component 115 may be configured with one or more noisefilters, time-domain signal processes, adaptive algorithms and/or othersoftware to facilitate the parsing out of a voice signal from a mixtureof sounds. For example, in one embodiment, extraction component 115 usesinter-microphone differential information and the statistical propertiesof independent signal sources to filter out the surrounding noise. Inanother embodiment, extraction component 115 employs one or more voicesegmentation techniques similar to those disclosed in, for example,Aaron E. Rosenburg et al., Unsupervised Speaker Segmentation ofTelephone Conversations, Voice Enabled Services Research Lab (AT&T Labs,Florham Park, N.J.). Extraction component 115 may also be configuredwith recognition software to recognize and/or extract various words thatare part of a communication and/or to extract the speaker's toneassociated with that communication. Extraction component's 115extractions of words and tones will be described in greater detailherein.

Comparing component 120 may be used to compare different communicatedwords to those stored in database 112. For example, comparing component120 may be configured to determine whether a recorded word is the sameas or similar to one that is stored on database 112. That is, comparingcomponent 120 may search database 112 to determine whether the recordedword has been previously stored on the database. If the recorded wordmatches or sufficiently matches one of the stored words, comparingcomponent 120 may send the recorded word to accept/reject component(accept/reject component) 125 as an “accept.” If the recorded word doesnot sufficiently match one of the stored words, comparing component 120may send the recorded word to accept/reject component 125 as a “reject.”

In another embodiment, comparing component 120 is configured to quantifyand/or qualify a recorded word based on one or more stored words and/ortone profiles. For example, comparing component 120 may initiallyquantify a recorded word based on one or more preset conditions and/orrequirements. In one embodiment, any recorded word over 60 dB isquantified as a “high” tone profile word, while words between 40-59 dBmay be quantified as “medium” tone profile words. In another embodiment,a Gaussian Mixture Model is associated with a word to facilitatecomparisons by comparing component 120.

Comparing component 120 may be configured with one or more additionalprograms, processes and/or procedures to quantify and/or qualify a toneincluding, for example, voice recognition software, tone segmentationsoftware, fundamental frequency information, vocal energy information,frequency spectral features, formants, linear predictive coding, neuralnetworks, ensembles of classifiers, spectral analyzers, signalamplifiers and the like. Once the recorded word is sufficientlyquantified, comparing component 120 may search database 112 to determineif there are any words with similar profiles stored on the database. Ifthe recorded word and profile matches one of the stored words and itsprofile, comparing component 120 may send the recorded word toaccept/reject component 125 as an “accept.” If the recorded word andprofile does not match one of the stored words and its profile,comparing component 120 may send the recorded word to accept/rejectcomponent 125 as a “reject.”

Comparing component 120 may also use a server and/or any other computingsystem to compare the customer's voice print with multiple known voiceprints to determine any substantial matches, meaning that the customer'svoice print and one of the known voice prints are likely from the sameperson. The identification of any matches may be used for a variety ofpurposes, such as determining whether to authorize a transactionrequested by the customer. For example, a cardholder may call a creditcard institution to request replacement of a lost or stolen credit card.The credit card institution wants to ensure that the person calling isthe true cardholder and not someone attempting to fraudulently obtainanother person's credit card. By comparing the customer's voice printwith the multiple known voice prints, associated with persons havingattempted fraudulent transactions, the system may determine whether thiscustomer is likely attempting to interact with another person's creditcard account based upon any substantial matches with the known voiceprints. For more information on speaker recognition, see the previouslyreferenced U.S. application Ser. No. 10/448,552 entitled “SPEAKERRECOGNITION IN A MULTI-SPEAKER ENVIRONMENT AND COMPARISON OF SEVERALVOICE PRINTS TO MANY.”

Database 112 may be used to store various words and/or associated toneprofiles. In one embodiment, database 112 is configured to store wordsassociated with a negative customer response. For example, thewords/phrases “no,” “I'm sorry,” “I can't,” “I won't,” “too bad,”“forget it,” “never mind,” “whatever,” “your problem,” etc., may bestored in database 112. The tone profile associated with these words mayalso be stored and/or associated with the words. For example, if thetone accompanying the word “no,” has a profile that is relatively high,the tone profile may be associated with the “no” to indicate that the“no” as one of disapproval and/or anger. However, if the toneaccompanying a second “no” has a profile that is relatively low, thetone profile may be associated with the second “no” to indicate that the“no” is a responsive word.

Database 112 also stores information from consumer surveys. Theseconsumer surveys contain information from customers regardingsatisfaction, emotions, and/or other consumer feelings associated withprevious calls. Comparing component 120 and/or any other software,hardware or component associated with system 100 uses information fromthese consumer surveys to determine whether the tone profiles and/orextracted words of the previous calls match the consumer surveyresponses from those calls.

Database 112 and any other database discussed herein may be any type ofdatabase, such as relational, hierarchical, graphical, object-oriented,and/or other database configurations. Common database products that maybe used to implement the databases include DB2 by IBM (White Plains,N.Y.), various database products available from Oracle Corporation(Redwood Shores, Calif.), Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server byMicrosoft Corporation (Redmond, Wash.), or any other suitable databaseproduct. Moreover, the databases may be organized in any suitablemanner, for example, as data tables or lookup tables. Each record may bea single file, a series of files, a linked series of data fields or anyother data structure. Association of certain data may be accomplishedthrough any desired data association technique such as those known orpracticed in the art. For example, the association may be accomplishedeither manually or automatically. Automatic association techniques mayinclude, for example, a database search, a database merge, GREP, AGREP,SQL, and/or the like. The association step may be accomplished by adatabase merge function, for example, using a “key field” inpre-selected databases or data sectors.

More particularly, a “key field” partitions the database according tothe high-level class of objects defined by the key field. For example,certain types of data may be designated as a key field in a plurality ofrelated data tables and the data tables may then be linked on the basisof the type of data in the key field. In this regard, the datacorresponding to the key field in each of the linked data tables may bepreferably the same or of the same type. However, data tables havingsimilar, though not identical, data in the key fields may also be linkedby using AGREP, for example. In accordance with one aspect of thepresent invention, any suitable data storage technique may be utilizedto store data without a standard format. Data sets may be stored usingany suitable technique, for example, storing individual files using anISO/IEC 7816-4 file structure; implementing a domain whereby a dedicatedfile may be selected that exposes one or more elementary filescontaining one or more data sets; using data sets stored in individualfiles using a hierarchical filing system; data sets stored as records ina single file (for example, compression, SQL accessible, hashed via oneor more keys, numeric, alphabetical by first tuple, etc.); block ofbinary (BLOB); stored as ungrouped data elements encoded using ISO/IEC7816-6 data elements; stored as ungrouped data elements encoded usingISO/IEC Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) as in ISO/IEC 8824 and 8825;and/or other proprietary techniques that may include fractal compressionmethods, image compression methods, etc.

In one exemplary embodiment, the ability to store a wide variety ofinformation in different formats is facilitated by storing theinformation as a Block of Binary (BLOB). Thus, any binary informationmay be stored in a storage space associated with a data set. The BLOBmethod may store data sets as ungrouped data elements formatted as ablock of binary via a fixed memory offset using either fixed storageallocation, circular queue techniques, or best practices with respect tomemory management (e.g., paged memory, least recently used, etc.). Byusing BLOB methods, the ability to store various data sets that havedifferent formats facilitates the storage of data associated with a widevariety of system components by multiple and unrelated owners of thedata sets. For example, a first data set which may be stored may beprovided by a first issuer, a second data set which may be stored may beprovided by an unrelated second issuer, and yet a third data set whichmay be stored, may be provided by a third issuer unrelated to the firstand second issuer. Each of these three exemplary data sets may containdifferent information that may be stored using different data storageformats and/or techniques. Further, each data set may contain subsets ofdata which also may be distinct from other subsets.

As stated above, in various embodiments of the present invention, thedata may be stored without regard to a common format. However, in oneexemplary embodiment of the present invention, the data set (e.g., BLOB)is annotated in a standard manner when provided for manipulating thedata onto the network. The annotation may comprise a short header,trailer, or other appropriate indicator related to each data set thatmay be configured to convey information useful in managing the variousdata sets. For example, the annotation may be called a “conditionheader,” “header,” “trailer,” or “status,” herein, and may comprise anindication of the status of the data set or may include an identifiercorrelated to a specific issuer or owner of the data. In one example,the first three bytes of each data set BLOB may be configured orconfigurable to indicate the status of that particular data set (e.g.,LOADED, INITIALIZED, READY, BLOCKED, REMOVABLE, or DELETED). Subsequentbytes of data may be used to indicate for example, the identity of theuser, user account identifier or the like. Each of these conditionannotations are further discussed herein.

Embodiments consistent with the present invention may provide forone-to-few or one-to-many comparisons of callers' voice prints withknown voice prints to identify any sufficient matches between them. Forexample, a caller's voice print may represent an electronic recording ofa caller's voice, and the known voice prints represent electronicrecordings of persons having a particular known characteristic. Forexample, the known voice prints may correspond with persons known tohave engaged in attempted fraudulent transactions. Alternatively, thecharacteristic for the known voice prints may relate to other factors orcriteria.

When a customer calls a particular entity, such as a customer servicecenter, the system may make a recording of the real-time call includingboth the customer's and agent's voices. The system may segment therecording to extract at least a portion of the customer's voice tocreate a customer voice print, typically in digital form for computerprocessing. The system may also format the segmented customer voiceprint for network transmission to a server. Although the processing mayoccur locally, in some embodiments it may occur at a remote server,requiring network transmission of the customer's voice print. Also, theterm customer is used for exemplary purposes and is intended to includeany type of caller (e.g., merchant, travel agent, cardholder, agent ofcardholder, processor, administrator, and/or the like) and any type ofcommunication (e.g., human or electronic voice).

An account number, as used herein, may include any identifier for anaccount (e.g., insurance, credit, charge, debit, checking, savings,reward, loyalty, or the like), which may be maintained by a healthcareand/or transaction account provider (e.g., payment authorization center)and/or which may be used to complete a transaction. A typical accountnumber (e.g., account data) may be correlated to an insurance account, acredit or debit account, loyalty account, or rewards account maintainedand serviced by such entities as American Express®, Visa® and/orMasterCard® or the like. In addition, the account number (e.g., accountdata) may be associated with any device, code, or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow the user to interact orcommunicate with the system, such as, for example, authorization/accesscode, personal identification number (PIN), Internet code, digitalcertificate, biometric data, and/or other identification indicia. Theaccount number may be optionally located on a medical insurance card,rewards card, charge card, credit card, debit card, prepaid card,telephone card, smart card, magnetic stripe card, bar code card, loyaltycard and/or the like. The account number may be distributed and storedin any form of plastic, electronic, magnetic, audio device and/oroptical device capable of transmitting or downloading data to a seconddevice. A user account number may be, for example, a sixteen-digitcredit card number, although each credit provider has its own numberingsystem, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used by AmericanExpress®. Each company's credit card numbers comply with that company'sstandardized format such that the company using a sixteen-digit formatwill generally use four spaced sets of numbers, as represented by thenumber “0000 0000 0000 0000”. In a typical example, the first five toseven digits are reserved for processing purposes and identify theissuing bank, card type and, etc. In this example, the last sixteenthdigit is used as a sum check for the sixteen-digit number. Theintermediary eight-to-ten digits are used to uniquely identify thecustomer.

In use, a customer calls a particular number which facilitatescontacting an agent and/or customer representative. For example, thenumber could include a customer service help line for a particularentity or institution. The system may include multiple agent computersand telephones, such as in a call center, for receiving calls fromcustomers, and a particular customer's call from a customer telephonemay be routed to an available agent via a switching device such as aprivate branch exchange (PBX). Upon reaching an agent, the customer maybe in communication with the agent via any wireline, optical or wirelessnetwork for data transmission such as, for example, a TransmissionControl Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network.

As described herein, the computing units may be connected with eachother via a data communication network. The network may be a publicnetwork and assumed to be insecure and open to eavesdroppers. In theillustrated implementation, the network may be embodied as the Internet.In this context, the computers may or may not be connected to theInternet at all times. For instance, the customer computer may employ amodem to occasionally connect to the Internet, whereas the bankcomputing center might maintain a permanent connection to the Internet.Specific information related to the protocols, standards, andapplication software utilized in connection with the Internet may not bediscussed herein. For further information regarding such details, see,for example, Dilip Naik, “Internet Standards and Protocols” (1998);“Java 2 Complete,” various authors, (Sybex 1999); Deborah Ray and EricRay, “Mastering HTML 4.0” (1997); Loshin, “TCP/IP Clearly Explained”(1997). All of these texts are hereby incorporated by reference.

The systems may be suitably coupled to network via data links. A varietyof conventional communications media and protocols may be used for datalinks. Such as, for example, a connection to an Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) over the local loop as is typically used in connectionwith standard modem communication, cable modem, Dish networks, ISDN,Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or various wireless communicationmethods. In addition, an agent computer and/or agent telephone and hostnetwork may reside on a local area network which interfaces to a remotenetwork for remote authorization of an intended transaction. Anycomputer and/or telephone used in the system may communicate with theremote network via a leased line, such as a T1, D3 line, or the like.Such communication methods are well known in the art, and are covered ina variety of standard texts. See, e.g., Gilbert Held, “UnderstandingData Communications,” (1996), hereby incorporated by reference.

The telephones discussed herein may include a conventional wirelinetelephone, a wireless or mobile telephone, a speaker phone, an InternetProtocol (IP) telephone, or a personal computer (PC) telephone. Forexample, in one embodiment, each telephone in the system is implementedwith the same or different physical devices. In one embodiment, an agenttelephone is implemented with a PC telephone. In another embodiment, acomputer may also be configured represent a switch to route calls to aPC telephone.

The computers discussed herein may provide a suitable website, webpageor other Internet-based graphical user interface which is accessible byusers. In one embodiment, the Internet Information Server, MicrosoftTransaction Server, and Microsoft SQL Server, are used in conjunctionwith the Microsoft operating system, Microsoft NT web server software, aMicrosoft SQL database system, and a Microsoft Commerce Server.Additionally, components such as Access or SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase,Informix MySQL, InterBase, etc., may be used to provide an ADO-compliantdatabase management system. The term “webpage” as it is used herein isnot meant to limit the type of documents and applications that might beused to interact with the user. For example, a typical website mightinclude, in addition to standard HTML documents, various forms, Javaapplets, JavaScript, active server pages (ASP), common gateway interfacescripts (CGI), extensible markup language (XML), dynamic HTML, cascadingstyle sheets (CSS), helper applications, plug-ins, and the like. Aserver may include a web service which receives a request from a browserwhich includes a URL (http://yahoo.com/stockquotes/ge) and an IP address(123.56.789). The web service retrieves the appropriate WebPages andsends the WebPages to the IP address.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of an exemplary tone/word recognitionmethod 200 for sufficiently recognizing tones and/or words forprocessing. Method 200 may be implemented in, for example, hardwareand/or software modules for execution by an agent computer. The varioussteps of method 200, and other described methods, are shown in aparticular order for illustrative purposes. The steps may occur in adifferent order and steps may be added or eliminated from the methods,depending upon a particular implementation, for example.

In an exemplary embodiment, an agent may receive a customer call from acustomer telephone via routing through a communications network (step272). As indicated above, this call may be received from a variety oftypes of telephones or other communications devices via anycommunications network. The customer call may be routed to an agenttelephone via a PBX or other switching device described herein. Duringthe telephone call, an agent computer may record at least a portion ofthe call using recording component 110, including both the agent's andcaller's (customer's) voice (step 274). An agent computer may be also beconfigured to facilitate segmentation, noise reduction/filtering and/orother similar manipulations of at least a portion of the different partsof the call (i.e., segmenting the caller's voice from the agent'svoice). Extraction component 115 may also be used to eliminatebackground noise, further differentiate the customer's and/or agent'svoice and/or further facilitate differentiation of words and/or voices.Extraction component 115 may employ one or more algorithms known in theart for performing this type of segmentation. Extraction component 115may also extract different voices based on biometric voice prints. Forexample, each person's voice has a unique voice print, due to forexample the various combinations of frequencies within each person'svoice, and thus one person's voice may be extracted from a recordingcontaining multiple voice recordings. Voice recognition biometrics mayinclude recognition of voice and/or speaker features such as, phonatedexcitation, whispered excitation, frication excitation, compression,vibration, parametric waveforms, tone, pitch, dialect, annunciation,and/or any portion thereof. These voice recognition features may becollectively referred to as a “voice print.” System 100 may be used inconjunction with method 200, and it may be configured with an audiocapture device such as a microphone, telephone, cellular telephone,speaker and/or other hardware and/or software for acquiring voice printdata.

The recording of the segmented caller's voice may be formatted byrecording component 110 and/or extraction component 115 for collection(step 276). For example, it may be formatted into a wav file, known inthe art and identified by a .wav extension. The use of a wav file, forexample, provides for a standard format for network transmission to aserver computer. Alternatively, the recording may be formatted into anytype of file that may be transmitted via a TCP/IP or other network.Recording component 110 and/or extraction component 115 may beconfigured to digitize the recorded words, voice prints, and/or toneprofiles and compare it against digitized words, voice prints, and/ortone profiles stored in database 112 (step 278). The words, voiceprints, and/or tone profiles may additionally be compared with similarinformation stored on one or more third-party databases communicatingsystem 100 through any communication software and/or hardware.

One or more comparison techniques and/or technologies may be used forcomparisons. For example, comparing component 120 may utilize anexisting database to compare the words, voice prints, and/or toneprofiles by comparing words, voice prints, and/or tone profile waveformsin the time domain, by comparing energy content in the words, voiceprints, and/or tone profiles across the frequency domain, by the use ofstochastic models and/or template models, and/or by any other voicerecognition or comparing method known in the art. Based on methods suchas these, the user may assess the false reject/accept errors to identifyan appropriate threshold for rejection or acceptance. Different accentsmay be addressed by modifying this threshold. For example, the detectionsystem is represented with a curve, which represents the systemperformance for each threshold value. This curve is called ReceiverOperating Characteristics (ROC) or Detection Error Trade-off (DET). ThisROC curve may be modified depending on various input parameters such as,for example, accent information, speech pathology information, and thelike. Transfer of information may include use of encryption, decryption,security keys, digital certificates and/or other security devices toconfirm the security of the sample. One or more third-party devices suchas voice recognition software and/or hardware systems to facilitateword, voice and tone profile comparisons may additionally be used, suchas, for example, those developed by SAFLINK and Voice Security Systems.

Comparison of words, voice prints, and/or tone profiles may be completedin real time, batch time, periodic intervals, online and/or offline.During these comparisons, comparing component 120 may be configured tosearch database 112 (step 280) for one or more word, voice print, and/ortone profile sufficiently matches. If comparing component 120 determinesthat the recorded information sufficiently matches the information ondatabase 112, comparing database may send a positive match score (i.e.,an “accept message”) to accept/reject component 125 (step 282).Accept/reject component 125 may then be used to evaluate the telephonecall, follow-up on the telephone call, provide statistical and/or otherfeedback to representatives and/or customers on the call and/or tofacilitate further customer communication, such as, for example,conducting consumer surveys to assess customer satisfaction with variouscalls. (step 286).

In one embodiment, providing feedback, accept/reject component 125 mayanalyze the call to determine the number of negative and/or positivewords and/or tone profiles uttered by the caller and/or representative.Accept/reject component 125 may use this information to characterizeand/or categorize the call as a positive and/or negative call. Forexample, system 100 may be used to track how many positive and/ornegative calls a certain representative handles in order to track and/orgrade the representative's handling of the different calls. That is,system 100 may be used to track the number of positive and/or negativewords used by the customer representative and/or the caller throughoutone or more calls to facilitate a determination of whether therepresentative is providing helpful assistance to the caller and/orwhether the representative is acting professionally. If an accept/rejectcomponent 125 analysis shows a growing trend during a call in the numberof negative words and/or tone profiles, accept/reject component 125 maybe configured to flag the call, flag a file corresponding to therepresentative, send a signal, and/or provide any other type of feedbackand/or warning. A representative with a flagged file may then berequired to attend training, etc.

In another embodiment, comparing component 120 and/or any othercomponent, or system, such as accept/reject component 125, analyzesinformation from a consumer survey associated with the call and comparesthat survey information to the words and/or associated tone profilesand/or other characteristics of the call to assess the accuracy ofcomparing component 120 and/or accept/reject component 125 (step 288).For example, words and/or associated tone profiles and/or other callcharacteristic may indicate that the consumer was not highly satisfiedduring the call. Comparing component 120 and/or any other software,hardware or component associated with system 100 can compare the resultsof a consumer survey associated with the call to verify whether thewords and/or associated tone profiles and/or other characteristicscorrectly matched the reported consumer satisfaction with the call. Ifthe consumer survey indicates higher customer satisfaction than what isindicated by the words and/or associated tone profiles and/or othercharacteristics, comparing component 120, accept/reject component 125and/or any other component or software associated with system 100 usesthe survey information is used to modify the customer response levelassociated with the call's words and/or associated tone profiles. Thisactive interaction and incorporation of customer survey responses withthe words and/or associated tone profiles, creates a more accurate andever-evolving customer assessment system.

If comparing component 120 determines that the recorded information doesnot match the information on database 112, comparing database may send anegative match score (i.e., a “reject message”) to accept/rejectcomponent 125 (step 284). A negative match score may then terminate theprocess as accept/reject component 125 may be unable to provide feedbackand/or follow-up (step 287).

The preceding detailed description of exemplary embodiments of theinvention makes reference to the accompanying drawings, which show theexemplary embodiment by way of illustration. While these exemplaryembodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice the invention, it should be understood that otherembodiments may be realized and that logical and mechanical changes maybe made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.For example, the steps recited in any of the method or process claimsmay be executed in any order and are not limited to the order presented.Further, the present invention may be practiced using one or moreservers, as necessary. Thus, the preceding detailed description ispresented for purposes of illustration only and not of limitation, andthe scope of the invention is defined by the preceding description, andwith respect to the attached claims.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed above with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as critical, required, or essentialfeatures or elements of any or all the claims. As used herein, the terms“comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variations thereof, are intendedto cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method,article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not includeonly those elements but may include other elements not expressly listedor inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Further, noelement described herein is required for the practice of the inventionunless expressly described as “essential” or “critical.”

1. A method for facilitating the evaluation of a customer representativetelephone call to facilitate customer service, comprising; receiving acommunication from a caller; recording an electronic representation ofat least a portion of a voice of said caller and recording an electronicrepresentation of at least a portion of a voice of said customerrepresentative receiving said call; extracting at least a portion ofsaid electronic representations of said call to form an extracted word;comparing at least a portion of said extracted word with a plurality ofknown words to determine if said extracted word substantially matchesany of the known words to form a word comparison; outputting anindication of said word comparison; and evaluating said call based onsaid indication of said word comparison.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein said step of extracting at least a portion of said electronicrepresentations of said call to form said extracted word includesforming at least one of an extracted phrase, an exclamation, a voiceprint and a tone profile.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step ofextracting at least a portion of said electronic representations of saidcall to form said extracted word includes segmenting at least a portionof said electronic representation of said voice of said caller from saidelectronic representation of said voice of said customer representativeto produce a caller voice print.
 4. The method of claim 3, furtherincluding: formatting said caller voice print into a file for networktransmission; and transmitting said file over a network.
 5. The methodof claim 1 wherein the outputting step includes generating an electronicreport providing an indication of whether said known word substantiallymatches said extracted word.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said stepof evaluating said call based on said indication of said word comparisoncomprises at least one of providing feedback to said customerrepresentative, providing follow-up to said caller, providingcommunication to said customer, using consumer survey information andproviding training to said customer representative.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further including: performing said recording and extractingsteps for a plurality of calls to produce a plurality of extractedwords; and performing said comparing step using a batch process tocompare each of said extracted words with each of said known words. 8.The method of claim 2, further comprising a comparison step comprisingcomparing an extracted voice print to a known voice print.
 9. The methodof claim 2, further comprising a comparison step comprising comparing atleast one of an extracted phrase, an exclamation, a voice print and atone profile to at least one of a known phrase, known exclamation, andknown voice print.
 10. The method of claim 2, further comprising acomparison step comprising comparing said portion of said electronicrepresentation to information from a consumer survey.
 11. The method ofclaim 1 wherein said extracting step further includes a segmenting step.12. The method of claim 11, wherein said segmenting step includesdetecting said voice of said caller within said electronicrepresentation, distinct from said voice of said customerrepresentative, and removing one or more portions of said voice of saidcaller in said electronic representation to produce at least one of acaller voice print and a caller extracted word.
 13. The method of claim1 wherein said comparing step includes determining a substantial matchbased upon a probability, greater than a particular threshold that saidextracted word and said known word are the same.
 14. The method of claim1, wherein said comparing step includes using at least one of: aGaussian Mixture Model, voice recognition software, tone segmentationsoftware, fundamental frequency information, vocal energy information,frequency spectral features, formants, linear predictive coding, neuralnetworks, ensembles of classifiers, spectral analyzers, and signalamplifiers.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein said outputting stepfurther comprises outputting a signal that includes at east one of: ascreen change, an audible signal, an electronic signal, and a printmessage.
 16. A system for facilitating the analysis of a word in atelephone call to determine a potential match with known words,comprising: a device configured for receiving, via a communicationsnetwork, a communication from a caller; a device configured forrecording at least a portion of an electronic representation of saidcall; a device configured for extracting at least a portion of saidelectronic representation of said call to form an extracted word; adevice configured for comparing at least a portion of said extractedword with a plurality of known words to determine if said extracted wordsubstantially matches any of said known words to form a comparison; adevice configured for outputting an indication of said comparison; and adevice configured for evaluating said call based on said indication ofsaid comparison.
 17. A computer-readable storage medium containing a setof instructions for a general purpose computer comprising: receiving acommunication from a caller; recording an electronic representation ofat least a portion of a voice of said caller and a voice of a customerrepresentative receiving a call; extracting at least a portion of saidelectronic representation of the call to form an extracted word;comparing at least a portion of said extracted word with a plurality ofknown words to determine if said extracted word substantially matchesany of said known words to form a comparison; outputting an indicationof said comparison; and evaluating said call based on said indication ofsaid comparison.